I've just started with this "eat every 3 hours" diet but I have awful timing. I either eat too soon (ie 2 hours) or too late (4++ hours) - I'm wondering if anyone had the same problem?

Also, I've been recording down what I've been eating (see blog) but I don't know how to determine the calories consumed. Most of the food I eat doesn't come with calorie labels


I have however been excercising regularly!

I know stupid question - but how often do you all weigh yourself? Once a week? Once every couple days? I have a bad habit of weighing myself everyday (now that I bought myself a new scale). It's actually a bad idea to do so because I get discouraged everytime I see that my weight hasn't gone down yet. Maybe I am impatient, afterall I only officially started 3 days ago!

Finding calories consumed is EASY! You can join a free website like FitDay or "The Daily Plate", search for the food (like "Apple, raw") and add it in. FitDay will do the math for you. You could also buy a book, like the CalorieKing Calorie Book, and it will show you the amounts for things without labels.

I weigh myself daily. I don't let the day-by-day fluctuations discourage me, though, so I'm able to do that without trashing my self esteem. If the day-to-day gets you down, I'd suggest weighing once a week.

As for how to determine if a plan is right for you: Are you losing weight at a reasonable pace (.5-2 lbs a week on average)? Are you relatively satisfied/full? Do you feel generally good, or are you tired/listless/dizzy? Do you enjoy the foods you are eating? Do you think it is a plan you can stay on forever (for weight maintenance?) I'd ask yourself those in re-evaluating.

it's much harder to do calories from pre-packed food that doesn't have a label.

however, if you're making it yoyurself from scratch then fitday and such likes have some really great calorie counters that you just put in what you had and the amounts and it tells you how many calories is in it. it's definately worth making stuff yourself if you want to be able to do that.

as far as weighing goes, i weigh once a week at my class but i must admit i'm terrible for it and get on pretty much every day to see whether i lost anything. it's not good and it's definately NOT representative of what you've lost. one day i'll go up the next down and it does't help me at all but i can't stop myself.

I like using LIVESTRONG.COM - it works for me cause it's quick and easy to use. You can create a free profile & log in your food (My Plate) & exercise & keep up with water intake. You can also put in your measurements & keep track of inches lost.

I use sparkpeople.com -it's great- I can input all my foods and most of the time it knows the calories or someone else out there has input the calories for me so I just add the item.

An example is van De Kamps whole heart whole wheat bread- I just typed it in and some user on the site had input all the nutrition information so all I had to do was put 2 slices of bread for breakfast- I love it.

Just last week I went from 219 to 214 (I had fallen off the bandwagon) and I attribute it to having a much easier time inputting calories online vs writing them in a journal than looking up calories later. The other nice thing is it tells you how many cals you should be eating to lose so many pounds a week and so on. I also get to track how much protein, carbs, fats, and so on, that I eat daily. I'm hooked! lol.

Check it out- or one of the other sites- I find it really helps.

I agree with mandalinn82.

When I first started ( Jan 1, 2009) eating every 3 hours I did have a hard time keeping track of time and actually eating every 3 hours. After a couple days I decided that I would eat at 7am, 10 am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm. Getting up in the morning and knowing that these were the times I had to eat made it much easier for me. After a week or so my body became adjusted to eating this way and now I can feel when the 3 hours are up without even looking at the clock.
I have lost 18 pounds since Jan 1st and LOVE eating every 3 hours.
I weigh myself every morning knowing that flucuations do occur.

A good reference. It works well for your case as well. Just go ahead with your data.

You know a diet works for you if you feel good, it is nutritionally healthy and it works for your life. There are a lot of eating patterns that work to help you lose. Every one of them has folks who have been successful and swear by it.

As far as weight. I weight myself at least once a day...but I only "track" my Monday weight. That is the weight on the counter here and in my fitday. For me the daily weighing is both motivating and helps me stay on track. It is also educational, I see how my body changes and can react to things. (For instance I always bounce up a couple of pounds after Chinese food, it is a bounce, not a gain, because in two days it is predictably gone...I think it is due to water retention. I don't stress about it any more...but Monday is my weigh in date and I am very reluctant to have Chinese on Sunday!)

I weigh daily. It helps to keep me honest. Fluctuations aren't something I choose to ignore. I keep track of them and know when I can expect the scale to go up monthly. I can also see it go up the following morning after eating out at most restaurants because of the sodium.

As far as figuring out calories, I eat mostly whole foods and can find estimated calories on the internet. I measure my weights and count my nuts, etc. and try to be as accurate as possible.

I have to say that I think everyone has to find the own path for success. I like what I do and actually enjoy it even. I have learned what works by reading and then implementing them and seeing them work. I am not in WW but think the "non-scale victories" WW prescribes are excellent strategies. I also like using some of their 1 and 2 point recipes I have found on Google.

You can really do this. We are all here for you--support and answers abound. Welcome.

I'm trying to decide which online calorie journal to use. Did you try FitDay at all? I'm wondering which one is the best to use. Does anyone have any insight? Thanks!

I've used both Daily Plate (livestrong.com) and Fitday and I personally like The daily plate better. It can keep track of everything easily and I like that i can make my own meals. I think its just preference, but I do enjoy TDP much better

I agree with WVUFan, I like the daily plate much better. I can't seem to find a lot of foods on FitDay and end up having to enter them manually.